The chair of the Barnstable Republican Town Committee said Gabriel Gomez is “not a career politician at all. He’s a Navy Seal, a businessman. He ran a company. He’s a refreshing change from what we constantly see.”

With three decades of service in Washington, Crocker said, Ed Markey “has lost perspective on how hard it is to be middle class. He has been a congressman since I was 7 years old.”

Washington needs an injection of businesspeople, according to Crocker, who said they know what it means to balance a budget when the alternative is going out of business.

Personally, she said, Gomez is “the embodiment of the American dream. His parents were immigrants, he didn’t speak the language until he went to school, he joined the Navy and became a SEAL.”

Crocker said the response “has been tremendously responsive” during the Cape standouts she’s done, and that people not usually interested in politics are asking if Gomez is “as genuine as he seems.” Her answer: a resounding “yes.”